Thursday, April 24, 2008

Of Tiger, Dragons & Green Ladies

Over the past three days, I have been the ultimate tourist. Camera out, head upwards n getting lost on the subway. Excellent. Honestly, that's how you tell the difference between a local and a tourist. The tourist will always have their heads in the sky looking at everything above them. A local couldn't give a fuck.

Day 1: Monday 21/04/2008

Went to see the Statue of Liberty today. Yeah. The ol' green biatch. Kinda pissing off really. Not the statue, getting to see her. When we got out at South Ferry station, we saw the queue. So we queued. And found out that was the queue to get into the place with the ticket booth. Where you had to queue some more to get tickets for the ferry to Liberty Island. While my mom waited in line, me n my aunt went into the giftshop to pass time. Thankfully the guy at the counter had a few tickets behind his store counter that he sold to people that came into his giftshop. So we bought the tickets from there and "jumped the queue" effectively.

Feeling proud of ourselves, we then proceeded to let our jaws drop vertically down the the floor as we saw the queue to get into the ferry. To cut things short, we took at least 2 hrs to get onto the ferry.

But once we got to Liberty Island, she was a sight. Did you know that the statue actually is tip-toeing? Well she is. I got a photo of her from behind. I'll be uploading it once I get back home cuz I don't have my cable here to connect my phone to the laptop.

We were done at Liberty Island by 3 so we went home to rest before heading out to Times Sq at night to see all the lights n stuff. It's a pretty cool place. The sounds, the billboards, the shops, etc. Saw the TRL studios.

Quite interestingly, there is an Army recruitment centre in the middle of Times Sq. I guess so that in case while shopping you have the sudden urge to sign up n fight a war in a far off Arab country. Hrmmm.....

Day 2: Tuesday 22/04/2006

We went to Grand Central Station today. It is a really GRAND building. The architechture is absolutely stunning. The ceiling is a stellar map with all the constellations drawn out n connected. Then there are the cornices on top of the columns.

Then there is the external facade... wow! No, I'm talking WOW!! I loved the centrepiece on the roof. If you thought the carvings on the top of Singapore's Supreme Court was cool, you have not seen anything till you've seen this. It is at least 3 times the size of the sculture on top of Supreme Court. It looks just as massive even though I'm standing so far away... Incredible.

We took the subway down towards Wall St. Sidetracked a bit and stepped into Trinity Church. Another beautiful building. The archways and the towers. It's like you've stepped back in time. From the noisy busy streets to the peace n quiet of the church. What a place to worship in...

Went past the NYSE and went to check out the bull. There is this really big bull statue that sits in the middle of a fork in the road. Haha. It has pretty big balls on the back. I have a picture with it. heh heh. Of me kickin it in the nuts. Woohoo!!

I'll type more when I am less tired. I am really burnt out right now with all the walking n shopping n sightseeing that we've been doing.

See ya...

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Big City Dreams

Okay. After the long suffering on the flight to get here, I'm finally sitting comfortably in the apartment that my sister is renting for all of us to stay in while we are here in the big city.

The 24 hrs spent sitting in planes and waiting in transit to get here was quite an ordeal. Couldn't imagine that sitting down was actually that much hard work. Not to mention that on the 11 hr flight frm Taipei to San Francisco, there was this really sour-looking lady sitting in the aisle seat of the row that my Aunt n I were in. It was really rather frightening to wake her up when we wanted to go to the loo n stretch our legs. She looked like she was ready to bite our heads off at any sec and I really didn't want to arrive in a body bag.

Quite interesting to observe the different type of people that you see walking through the various airports around the world. Already to get here, I had to sit for at least an hour in four different airports. So people-watching was a fantastic way of passing the time as we were waiting for our connecting flights.

There was one man in particular that really stood out. Well, if you see a man that personifies the movie slasher stereotype, you tend to remember them pretty vividly. Especially when he decides to stand directly under one of the airport lights which casts a shadow over his hooded face. OMFG! Spine chilling stuff.

Anyway. The drive into town from the airport was a pretty fast one and we managed to get into the apartment really quickly n get all our stuff into the rooms. Having my feet up after the long journey is really nice.

I'll post more once I have something to post abt. Meanwhile, we're gonna be heading out soon to try n keep ourselves awake and repel the effects of the jet lag.

Smell ya ltr..